It's been a while since I've seen my wife be indifferent toward her favorite football team, the Kansas City Chiefs. Ever since the Alex Smith era ended, it's either been celebration or, in the rare case of a Chiefs loss, anger. But Monday night's loss to the Jaguars felt like resignation — I joked that KC left too much time on the clock for Trevor Lawrence, and she was just like "yeah..."
As it turned out, the Chiefs did leave Lawrence too much time, though that wasn't the only factor at play as the defending AFC champions fell to 2-3 on the season on Monday. We can't blame Kareem Hunt for scoring too early, but there are plenty of players we can blame for the Chiefs losing to Jacksonville.
So let's do that. Let's blame some guys. There's plenty to go around after a game where Kansas City committed 12 penalties.
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Harrison Butker
These players are listed in no particular order other than the order their mistakes on Monday sprung into my head. Kicker Harrison Butker is first because his massive mistake on a kickoff started the chain reaction that led to KC's loss.
Kareem Hunt had just scored the go-ahead touchdown with 1:45 to play in the game. All the Chiefs had to do was step up on defense and get a stop, but that's tough to do when you give your opponent excellent field position.
And what did the Chiefs do? Gave their opponent excellent field position after Butker kicked the ball out of bounds on the kickoff. So now, the Jaguars are starting at the 40 instead of 10-20 yards further back, which makes everything much easier for Lawrence. That was probably the moment when it became clear the KC was in trouble.
Chamarri Conner
Despite the kickoff issue and despite letting the Jaguars march down the field, the Chiefs looked like they'd survived when Bryan Cook picked off Lawrence in the end zone on Jacksonville's final possession.
But wait, there was a flag, and it was a pretty obvious one. Lawrence underthrew the ball and Brian Thomas Jr. was coming back to it when Chamarri Conner wrapped an arm around him.
Look: I get it. It's the heat of the moment. You're trying to prevent a touchdown by whatever means necessary. And the Cook interception wasn't going to happen without the penalty, so it wouldn't have been an instant game-over moment.
But still, Conner has to turn around and play the ball. You can't give the Jaguars an easy first down that close to the end zone, because it becomes much, much harder to do anything at that point.
Jack Cochrane
Butker wasn't the only player to make a mistake on a kickoff. Jack Cochrane screwed up on two different kick returns, erasing crucial returns.
The first of his two holding calls erased a big return from rookie Brashard Smith, forcing the Chiefs to start at their own 20 instead of in Jaguars territory on a drive that ultimately ended in a punt. Luckily for Cochrane, the next Jaguars drive ended in a Lawrence interception, and the Chiefs quickly scored on the short field, so there was a chance that the penalty would fade into the background and people would have glossed over it as just one mistake in a night full of them.
But then, Cochrane did it again.
This time, it came on a Smith return with just 23 seconds to play. The rookie back put the Chiefs in a strong spot where they really just needed a handful of yards to get in range for a game-tying Butker field goal that would have sent the contest to overtime.
But oh, look — there was a flag, another holding penalty on Cochrane that instead put the Chiefs at their own 17-yard line with just 16 seconds of game time remaining. Mahomes can work some magic, but that was asking for too much magic, like going to see a local magician and walking away angry that he didn't make the Golden Gate Bridge disappear.
Jaylen Watson
But hey, the mistakes didn't start on that final drive! There was a pretty big one earlier in the game as well.
The Chiefs led 14-0 in the second quarter and looked to be rolling to their third win of the season. The team had Jacksonville backed up on a third and 15 at its own 25-yard line, giving the team a great chance to get a stop and get the ball back with a lot of time on the clock and good field position.
And it appeared that's what had happened, as the intended pass for Brian Thomas fell incomplete. The problem? Jaylen Watson committed pass interference. Jaguars get the automatic first down and go on to march down the field for their first score of the game.
Watson's issues were more than just that penalty, though. It felt like he was getting consistently burned, especially in the second half. His struggles in pass coverage allowed Lawrence to get cooking late in the contest.
Jawaan Taylor
It seems like we get an obligatory Jawaan Taylor penalty every week. This time, it was an illegal formation in the first quarter on a drive that ended just a couple of plays later with a punt. Taylor deserves less blame than most players for this loss, but at some point, the Chiefs have to do something about his constant penalties.
Patrick Mahomes
*Sigh* Fine, fine, fine. I'll talk about the Mahomes pick six.
Mahomes had the Chiefs in position to go up by a score in the third quarter, either via a touchdown or just a field goal if the drive stalled out. Instead, one pass swung the entire game, as Mahomes' throw to JuJu Smith-Schuster wound up going the other way for six when Devin Lloyd jumped in front of the ball.
First, credit to Lloyd here, who has been playing out of his mind in 2025. The fourth-year linebacker leads the NFL with four interceptions on the season, which has already doubled his career total.
But this one was probably avoidable. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said after the game that the Jaguars "showed blitz," but Mahomes "didn’t see him and it ended up an interception."
That's not, like, the harshest blame being leveled at Mahomes or anything, but it is some blame. Mahomes is the reason the Chiefs are ever even in a position to win games because he's one of the greatest quarterbacks this league has seen, but on this play, Mahomes misread the defense and it cost the Chiefs the football game.